Comey: Trump asked me to kill Flynn probe

The NYT is reporting that Donald Trump asked then- FBI Director James Comey to kill the FBI’s investigation of former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

The FBI was investigating Flynn, among other reasons, because of his having lied about secret conversations he had with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.

Trump asked Comey to shut down the investigation the day after Flynn was fired. You’ll recall that the Trump administration was warned by then- acting-Attorney-General Sally Yates in January that Flynn was compromised. The White House then did nothing for 18 days, until the story broke in the press, then, and only because of the public nature of the news, did Trump fire Flynn.

We know all of this because Comey felt the president was improperly trying to influence the FBI’s Russia investigation, so Comey kept a paper trail of memos documenting every conversation he had with Trump.

And as the NYT notes, an FBI agent’s contemporaneous notes of conversations are considered credible evidence in court.

All of this sheds further light on why Trump fired Comey. You’ll recall that odd paragraph in Trump’s letter informing Comey that he was fired, the paragraph about how Comey had allegedly informed Trump three times that Trump wasn’t under investigation. Putting aside the fact that Trump’s claim is a lie, it always struck me that Trump wasn’t just writing this to cover his behind (“see, even Comey says I’m innocent!”), he was also whining a bit. What if Trump was actually saying, “you told me three times I wasn’t under investigation, yet this investigation continues and continues and continues.”

And, we know from Trump’s tweets following Comey being fired that Trump did in fact see Comey’s demission in the framework of the Russia investigation, which Trump felt was a waste of resources. So Trump fired Comey, the man that Trump felt was singlehandedly trying to take him down.

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John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.